


The Retainer

by A_Most_Sovereign_Lady



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:35:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25729789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Most_Sovereign_Lady/pseuds/A_Most_Sovereign_Lady
Summary: The Retainer is a chronicle of the adventures of the Inutachi through the eyes of Akiyama Katsu, a kitsune zi-samurai in service to the titular character. Primary pairing is InuKik, others will arise. Rated T, subject to change. NOT a Kagome basher. - Cross-posted from FFN.
Relationships: InuYasha/Kikyou (InuYasha)
Kudos: 3





	1. A Necessary Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own InuYasha, nor do I accrue monetary profit from this project, done purely for enjoyment.

**The Retainer**

_A Necessary Introduction_

3, Kisaragi, Tenbun 6

3, February, 1537

“Do you believe in destiny?” A very old man leaned against the wall of a building for support. Across from him on the other side of a table sat another being, not a man but a yokai, a sort of spirit or demon that stood between the heavens and men. The demon sat forward, lightly lifting a cup of tea from the table as his companion winced from a chill. Outside a snow storm unleashed its fury unto the world with its wet, fluffy flakes sticking to every conceivable surface, blanketing the world in a chill white.

“I do.” The demon, a fox named Akiyama, responded as he drank. “Though some are crueler than others, we all have one.” There was a tremble in the fox’s voice, a pang for something long passed away.

“I do not believe myself special, my lord.” The old man leaned forward, inching closer to the small fire that dominated the center of the building’s one room, seeking warmth.

“I ask because I wonder about you, my lord.” The last in a long line of people who had sworn service to the fox spirit, as he had sworn to another. No other vassals or retainers remained of Akiyama’s, only this single old human, a far cry from the mighty warbands of other, greater lords. “I wonder what will become of your house when I am gone. I wonder what will become of you.” The old man had a frankness in his voice afforded to him by long years of providing counsel, whether the recipient wanted it or not.

“I will be well. I was well before your house, and I am honored by and thankful for your meritorious service.” Akiyama smiled ever so slightly though the gesture did not reach his dark eyes. It would be terribly sad to watch the old man, Yudai, go. While Akiyama did not witness the deaths of Yudai’s forebears nearly as personally as he was witnessing this servant’s twilight days, it had been sad when his father went, and his father’s father, and each time before that. Each successive generation leaving fewer than the last as they either died or moved on.

Akiyama’s last yokai servant had perished in battle during the turmoil that had followed his previous lord’s death. When that lord’s eldest was carving out territory from his father’s nominal domain. Gekokujō*and all.

“I fear for you, Lord Akiyama.” Yudai said quietly. No normal person’s hearing would have picked up the words, but foxes were not known for their deafness. “I fear for you because you are stuck. As immovable as the object of your undying devotion and that saddens this old man more than you could know, my lord. You are strong, and could be mighty. Instead, you sit here, in this decrepit house that you call yours, with me, your last manservant… Waiting for someone who will never wake up.”

Akiyama sighed, sitting his cup down before he reached over and tossed a small log onto their fire, breathing life into it with the fuel. “I am schooling myself in the ways of the monks and the priestesses, my young friend.” Yudai laughed at the accusation that he was in any way youthful. “It will take me time, but I believe I am gaining ground into understanding how to undo holy seals…” It had already been decades.

Akiyama let that linger in the air for a moment, his servant nodding along. “Will you make it through winter?” The kitsune asked bluntly after that long moment.

Yudai shrugged, “I cannot say, my lord. At my age, I could live another ten years, I could live another ten minutes. I feel healthy, but I am not as strong, or as fast, or as able as I once was, this is how we humans are, we age and we die. Some are not so lucky as me, to be living to seventy!” Yudai chuckled, a warm sound. “I’ve outlived emperors, that’s an odd feeling, outliving a god.” …

Their conversation faded into a comfortable silence, the two, man and spirit, sharing their company like the oldest of friends. The only disruption to their amicable quiet, the occasional tossing of another stick on to the fire…

* * *

15, Minazuki, Tenbun 13

15, June, 1543

The trees of this forest were old and familiar in spite of the many years it had been since the samurai had last walked beneath them. They were similar to trees elsewhere, old growths that had seen the long march of time. Akiyama walked with an appreciation for the trees, but also a loathing. They were but flowering bars of an everlasting prison. A thing unmoving for time immemorial. As the seasons passed, they would wither, they would die, and be reborn, as was the way of things, but bars they remained.

The samurai came to a pause at the foot of a particular tree, his destination. The trip here had been long and quiet, relatively undisturbed, no one mortal dared to bother the kitsune. His clothing and bearing showed him as a samurai, and you did not bother a samurai out of want to live. As to his own kind, there had been skirmishes occasionally, but none of note, or worth.

Akiyama smiled a sad smile, regarding the golden trunk of a very tall and old tree. It was so out of place, surrounded by hues of brown. The words of his departed castellan rang in his mind’s eye as the fox beheld the thick vines that wrapped up and around the tree, trying their level best to entomb the object of his obsession.

Without any ceremony the fox clambered up the vines with a deft lightness that betrayed his nature to an outside observer and placed a hand upon a key to the prison he was in.

It immediately pulsed outward and threw the fox into a tree violently…

Such were the days of Akiyama Katsu, a simple retainer to a lord who would never wake up…


	2. Small Comas

One

Small Comas

7, Fumizuki, Tenbun 15

7, July, 1545

A deep _agony_ blossomed across the fox spirit’s essence, consuming his mind. He gasped in pain as he woke from his slumber, one as deep as death.

“Good morning.” A weathered voice sounded through the air before it could still. Akiyama, who had been looking up at the owner’s ceiling, turned his head toward them. His face fell in sheer, abject terror when he beheld the white and red of a priestess. An old priestess, but one nonetheless.

“Good morning?” The samurai asked tentatively, as though he were pondering why he wasn’t dead yet.

“That was a foolish thing you did.” The priestess’s voice was a blend of disappointment and cool hostility.

“What were you thinking? That you’d gawk at the ‘great work’ done?” The entire time she spoke, the miko moved with a subtle grace blunted only a little by age, attending poultices and herbal concoctions in small ceramic and wooden bowls. “You are lucky to be alive, luckier still that I remembered you.”

That made Akiyama blink.

“May I ask who you are, then?” The samurai dared not move any further, the possibility of being turned into a fine ash kept him still.

“Kaede.” The priestess answered curtly before she moved her hands closer to the fox, who flinched. “Stop squirming. If it was your death that I desired, you would not have awoken at all.” She chided gently as she worked toward changing bandages, it was at that point, looking down his nose at the rest of him, that Akiyama realized just how badly he’d been wounded.

Most of the fox’s body was bandaged in some form, some thicker, some thinner, honestly, Akiyama was a little surprised his glamour was still up. “Thank you, Lady Kaede.”

“I am not a lord.” Kaede tightened one of the bandages on his dominant, left side a bit tighter in response to the honorific. “Come, sit up. Your kind does not need to eat, but humor an old woman.” The miko obviously knew what he was, in addition to who.

Akiyama did as he was told with some difficulty, being covered as he was which limited his movement a little. He would normally hold them as being unnecessary, but something deep within him said there was something _wrong._ It left the fox unsettled. Wounds were normal, he was a warrior, they came and went with the seasons, and a few were severe enough to leave scars. This however, felt _different_.

It had been the first time he’d touched that godforsaken arrow. He had remembered nothing after that, though. “How long?” The samurai inquired gently as Kaede handed him a bowl filled with broth.

“Nearly two years.” Kaede explained candidly as the fox’s face fell. “You should count yourself lucky that there were hunters nearby when you did it. As they told it, they saw a bright light erupt from the grove where InuYasha is imprisoned where, upon investigating, they found you unconscious and _glowing._ ”

“Glowing? Hm… Nothing I’d read or learned suggested that would happen.” Akiyama muttered, which earned him a tap to his good right arm.

“Did you really think study would help you undo the seal?” Kaede sniffed, indignant and annoyed.

“It couldn’t hurt, now could it? Know one’s enemy, and all.” The fox caught himself, but the politeness of his tone never fell, the words said, were said, simple as that.

“Were it so simple?” Kaede sat back and stared at the fox for a long moment as he sipped at the given broth. “Tell me, Akiyama,” That got Akiyama’s attention, he hadn’t mentioned his name. “What makes you think that we are enemies?”

The fox, to his credit, showed no outward sign of discomfort at the question, instead he tilted his head slightly and stared at the priestess in return. “Reiki against Youki. You never did say how you know me?”

Kaede scoffed, “Quite,” the priestess turned her back on the fox, resuming her herbalist tasks which had paused only momentarily for their initial conversation. “You are that inconstant fox that showed up once or twice when I was small. Initially, we thought you to be after the sacred jewel, much as InuYasha initially was, but no, imagine my surprise when that boy explained when I was still a girl that you were some sort of servant.” The priestess laughed a little, a warm, worn sound.

“Indeed.” Akiyama gave a single word in response as he finished the thin broth. “I should be thankful to you for saving my worthless hide.” the samurai would have bowed but the bandages hindered such a motion.

“Mm.” Kaede didn’t respond so much as she quieted the fox. A silence fell interspersed by small sounds such as shuffling, bowls being moved, filled or emptied.

A shout from the doorway drew Kaede’s attention several minutes later. The priestess rose and left the building that served as her home and apothecary.

A few seconds passed before Kaede stuck her head back into her house, “Get up, you’ll want to see this.”

Akiyama did as he was told and rose with some difficulty from what had been his bed for two years. The samurai’s legs shook under the weight of his form, as they were no longer used to him, but he did not fall as the fox threaded magics to maintain his height and gait.

The sun blinded Akiyama momentarily when he stepped into the outside world a moment later only half dressed, his upper body still consumed by bandages. If the villagers assembled outside the house had any commentary they kept it to themselves, as they were too busy gawking at… a nude girl?

Akiyama did a double take, not quite nude but certainly more risque than _anything_ he’d ever seen in his long life, and he’d been around a while. 

What the samurai noticed foremost though was when he diverted his attention to the girl’s face. He managed to blink exactly once before he bowed as respectfully as he could to the girl’s great confusion; “My lady.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's worth mentioning that this story is being told almost entirely from the perspective of the OC, or at least from over his shoulder. We'll miss out on scenes, dialogue etc as a result of there being moments where he is not present. The scenes not told from his perspective will be marked and will be chapter length, not single snippets.

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline and dates, provided in the Japanese and Gregorian calendars, are fanon.  
> Anime/Film, with references and arcs based on.


End file.
